"Are these guys on crack or something?"

That's been a common reaction of mine whenever I hear music that is more than a bit baffling, that pushes the bounds of what I think will "work", or that comes coupled with bizarre lyrical scenarios that make me wonder if the songwriters had been whacked over the head really hard as young children. I tend to make this statement with mock annoyance in my voice, but I'm usually laughing on the inside. As long as you aren't going to excessive lengths to shock or disturb me, I've developed an ability to handle a fair amount of weirdness in the music I listen to over the years. Whether it's Sigur Ros singing in a made-up language, Radiohead leaving their listeners stranded in a strange electronic landscape with no noticeable exits, or The Flaming Lips gleefully crooning about the apocalypse, there's a certain juncture where a bizarre imagination gets coupled with contemporary pop or rock sensibilities, and it can often create some pretty addictive stuff. That's more or less what this newcomer to Modest Mouse is finding on this tattered, off-kilter, but strangely compelling album entitled Good News for People Who Love Bad News. (I'll spare you the obligatory pun on the album title - they've all been used up at this point.)

There's just one thing, though. Immersing myself in this band's delectably weird world comes at a bit of a price. For one thing, every track on this rough-hewn indie-gone-sort-of-mainstream rock album is a bit of a crapshoot - there's no successful formula to determine, from one person to the next, if they'll like it or not. My mood can change completely as this album switches from one track the next, and that can be a bit of a disorienting feeling. It's like they've taken the sci-fi psychedelia of The Flaming Lips, grabbed a few funky guitar and bass licks from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, stopped off in Michigan to steal some folksy instruments from Sufjan Stevens, and then dropped by Cake's studio to grab an extra dose of smug cynicism. If that's not enough to baffle you, the fact that lead singer Isaac Brock can sound like he's about four or five different guys with equally eccentric personalities throughout the album oughta throw you for a loop. Seriously, you'll be about a third of the way through the album and you'll suddenly think, "Hey, is this even the same band any more?" Yeah, this is pretty weird stuff. Maybe it's old hat to those in-the-know who were into these guys like 10 albums ago or whatever, but it's still new and fun and bizarre to these ears.

There's still a bit of trouble, though. With all of the wackiness comes an unfortunate tendency towards harsh language and an overall negative and mean spirit. It may well be all in good fun, since there's little chance anyone would take the majority of Good News's 13 songs seriously, but it can get a bit tiring after a while when you're right in the middle of a clever, wordy verse and then you get a blunt swear word thrown at you. I don't want to go all "Plugged In Magazine" on you folks - it's not a complete mood killer since I still think there's a lot of fun to be had here. But since naughty little words creep into roughly 2/3 of the songs on the album, it's just enough to make me wonder where the PA label went on this puppy. I've learned to look at swearing in context and not take it as such a big deal when it's not intended to offend, but given the rather dejected attitude of many of these songs, it's tough not to view the words as being somewhat venomous towards certain people at times, or even towards God. Consider it a point of caution if you don't like that sort of thing - it's not a blanket reason to discard the album altogether.

Ultimately, the fact that Isaac is such a spaz and his band tends to follow suit makes for a rough but entertaining ride. So buckle up, and let's plow through this thing!

Horn Intro
OK, here's a pointless intro track if I've ever heard one. It's just horns blurting for nine seconds, and it's a completely awful segue into the first song. Next!

The World at Large
I like songs about drifters, books about the same
They both seem to make me feel a little less insane...
For such a hyperactive album, it begins on a deceptively calm note, with the type of dazed, drifting ballad that you'd normally expect to be at the end of an album. It's got a lovely, watery chord progression and an Irish-sounding flute hook that is just plain cool. Our first taste of Isaac Brock's voice is fairly easy on the ears - to me, he's a good mix of The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne and Switchfoot's Jon Foreman at least in this more reserved mode. The lyrics here are definitely easy to relate to, as Isaac observes (but refuses to complain about) the weather getting colder and decides to pack up and leave for a warmer place. He casts himself as a "drifter" type in this song, kind of romaing around, never really settling down, and casually asserting that everything will be fine and life will just "float on" even if he's not aware of what direction he's going. Lots of little lyrical nuggets here, one of the best of which would be "My thoughts were so loud I couldn't hear my mouth". Yeah, you'll see what he means in just a few minutes, because the band certainly doesn't stay as introspective as this for much longer.

Float On
A fake Jamaican took every last dime with that scam
It was worth it just to learn some sleight-of-hand...
The second song (a hit single against all odds for a band that has apparently been toling in indie-land for quite some time) breaks in with a flurry of drums and snappy guitar licks just as "The World at Large" fizzles and dies out, and suddenly I'm getting a strange sense of deja vu... Hey, wait a second! That's the same chord progression you just used, you punks! You can't just re-use it like that? But they do, and to Modest Mouse's credit, recasting the same overall melody into a more upbeat song actually works quite well. The song is basically about bad stuff (generally of a humorous variety) happening to you, and making a conscious decision to learn from it and not let it get you down. Now here's a song that I wish I related to, you know what I'm saying? By the time the gang shouts of "Alright, already! We'll all float on!" come in near the end, chances are that you'll already have a smile plastered across your face - it's just too contagious in its own way, even with a sample of Isaac's weird yelling in the background that we'll later get to experience unfiltered.

Ocean Breathes Salty
Well that is that, and this is this
Will you tell me what you saw, and I'll tell you what you missed
When the ocean met the sky
You missed when time and life shook hands and said goodbye
When the earth folded in on itself...
You've gotta give Modest Mouse credit for easing their new listeners into the album, since the three most accessible tracks (in my opinion) are piled up right here. The album's second single is a great follow-up to "Float On", breaking out with crashing drums and cymbals and a positively shimmering guitar part that once again creates an infectious mood. The band has already started to get a bit cynical here, though, and if you listen closely, you can tell that the lyrics are pondering what happens to a soul when the body dies and is reclaimed by the ocean (or something like that). Their conclusion doesn't seem to be one that religious folk will care for much, since the basic idea here is, "For your sake, I hope Heaven and Hell are really there, but I wouldn't hold my breath". But if you look past that, you'll see an urgent warning to some of those types who just sit around waiting as if Heaven's supposed to just happen and mortal life is pointless. "You wasted life, why wouldn't you waste death?" Isaac taunts. I love the manic tone to his voice when he breaks into the highly addictive chorus - he sounds like a cross between Shaggy from Scooby Doo and some old redneck sitting out on his porch with a shotgun trying to scare off visitors. "Well, that is THAT and this is THIS!" he boldly declares. Um, yeah. Thanks for clearing that up for me, man.

Dig Your Grave
Not sure what the deal is with this short interlude - it's a bit of twangy guitar or banjo picking with some guy muttering in the background. Probably intended as a thematic lead-in to the next track, but so far, Modest Mouse isn't doing too well with the interludes.

Bury Me with It
We were aiming for the moon, we were shooting at the stars
But the kids were just shooting at the buses and the cars...
Hope you enjoyed the comparatively easy introduction to the album, because from here on out, it's a fairly continual descent into madness. While "Ocean Breathes Salty" is my definite favorite on this album, this song also ranks pretty high up there, because it's one of those were I just have to laugh at Isaac's little spastic fits. This is a slacker anthem if I've ever heard one, and I know I've made a lot of Flaming Lips comparisons before, but this would be one place where Modest Mouse's attitude is very different from that of the Lips - they see the future coming and they want no part of it. The basic sentiment here is that they've wasted too much time and they probably should be doing something useful with their lives, but they just seem to be getting older and unable to keep up with the rest of society. So Isaac basically declares, over an irresistibly sharp and funky groove, that when his playtime runs out that you can "PLEEEEASE!!! BU-ry me WITH IT!!!" Hearing him scream that line several times is likely to irritate most people, but once again, what should bug the hell out of me ends up being insanely catchy. I love the way the drums and cymbals go crashing through this song, and the bridge lyric is among the album's most intriguing moments: "We are hummingbirds who've lost the plot and we will not move. We have good news for anyone who loves bad news." Alright, well, that explains the album title... or not. This is the first of many points where swearing drags the song down just a tad, though I have to admit I find it kind of humorous when Isaac insists, "I just don't need none of that Mad Max bullsh*t!"

Dance Hall
Well I haven't had enough and I said I had my fill
The past does not exist and I'm told it never will
I guess that I'm stuck here like a plant on a windowsill...
So, you like rockabilly? Well, that's just too dang bad if you don't, 'cause Modest Mouse does. And Isaac is basically going to have a maniacal screaming fit throughout the duration of this song, insisting in his raspy drawl that "I'm gonna dance hall, dance hall, every day!" Most of the rest of what he says is rather incomprehensible, though if you go look it up, you'll find out that it's just a bit rude. A fun song if you just concentrate on Dann Gulicci's glistening guitar riffs and Eric Judy's bumpin' bass (these guys would do well in a swing band, I think), but man, it's tough to get past those obnoxious vocals. I generally find Isaac's many voice impressions to be amusing, but I have my limits.

Bukowski
Well see what you wanna see, you should see it all
Well take what you want from me, you deserve it all
Nine times out of ten, our heart just gets dissolved
Well, I want a better place, or just a better way to fall...
All the people who dislike country music are probably going to have to tune out for a few songs now, because this is where the banjo takes precedence for a few tracks. Yep, these guys have a bit of hillbilly blood in 'em. Personally, I think it's cool to hear a banjo plucking along with Isaac's mad ramblings, and here he's in more of a subdued mode, so we can actually understand him and follow along with his thoughts. Unfortunately, his thoughts here are pretty ugly, basically questioning how God is running the world, calling God a "control freak", and asking, "God, who'd want to be such an a**hole?" Now come on, that's not very nice. I can appreciate that the song is built around a literary reference to the poet/author Charles Bukowski, and there are lyrically intriguing moments a plenty (like the weird, low-toned vocals that inquire "Evil home stereo, what good songs do you know?"), but ultimately, this is one of those songs that I like more for the music and that I generally tune out the lyrics to.

This Devil's Workday
Well, let's take this potted plant to the woods and set it free
I'm gonna tell the owners just how nice that was of me...
Here's a fun one that ought to annoy the bejeebers out of some of you. Take the banjo plucking and match it up with some of the most obnoxious horn playing this side of a bad Five Iron Frenzy song (or maybe the Squirrel Nut Zippers' "Hell" - an obvious choice for a companion song). Then set it to a lyric about what it would be like to be Satan for a day. Yep, that's right, the role of Beelzebub will now be played by Isaac Brock. Bring in your pets and lock up your children, folks. Because of the ridiculous premise, and the silly (though somewhat unsettling) things that he insists he's going to spend his time doing (in the most growly voice he can muster, by the way), it's impossible to take this one seriously, but then, I don't think it was intended as such anyway. Basically, Satan is going to eat your wedding cake, leave your puppies out in the cold, and set your potted plants free in the wild. The "chorus" (if you could call it that) is basically a repeated reminder that "All those people that you know floating in the river are logs." Later on, he proudly declares, "I am my own damn god!" and then maniacal laughter ensues. (Interesting that "damn god" doesn't sound nearly as harsh as the other way around.) Probably not a good track to play around small children, but to me it seems more like a character piece from a really strange musical than a serious attempt to do the bidding of Satan or anything. By the end of the song, I'm starting to think that the trumpet player is doing the bidding of Satan, though - I mean, YOUCH!

The View
Life, it rents us
And yeah, I hope it put plenty on you
Well, I hope mine did too...
I promise, this song has nothing to do with Barbara Walters. No sir, it's all about bumpin' bass and some sort of a weird, disco-like beat. Once again, a highly addictive musical moment - these guys sure know how to do "catchy" without compromising on "creative"! Isaac does a good job of alternating between normal singing and SUDDEN AGITATED OUTBURSTS! here, which keeps the listener on their toes. Hey, at least the guy is aware of the fact that he shoots off his mouth a lot, as evidenced by the lyrics. Try to get caught up in the catchy beat and not pay too much attention to the words, here, though, because the general sentiment here is that "If it takes sh*t to make bliss, well, then I feel pretty blissfully." Numbness rather than a gamut of positive and negative emotions seems to be the comfortable center that he's aiming for here. "If life's not beautiful without the pain, well I'd just rather never ever ever see beauty again", he tells us. Not healthy, man!

Satin in a Coffin
Well you disappeared so often, like you dissolved into coffee
Are you here right now or are there probably fossils under your meat?
Continuing with the theme of death and despair (I don't think I've ever heard such dark themes on such a catchy collection of songs!) is this puzzling number that ambles along in a strange death march with Medieval-sounding horns and some sort of a country/Western-type instrument plucking away in the background. It has the feel of an old Wild West movie in some ways, but then there are the weird, repeated interjections of "Are you dead or are you sleeping? God, I sure hope you are dead!" It's a highly memorable song due to the forceful way that the lyrics are spit out along with the beat, but man, take some Prozac, you guys.

Interlude (Milo)
This is a cute little interlude with carnival like music and the sound of a baby giggling. Not sure how this new life fits into the overbearing theme of death on the album, and honestly, this minute-long piece comes out of nowhere, but it's pleasant enough.

Blame It on the Tetons
Language is for liquid that we're all dissolved in
Great for solving problems, after it creates a problem...
Talk about a momentum-killer. I mean, I don't mind if Modest Mouse wants to slow down and give us an acoustic ballad, but something about the light guitar strumming, even lighter drum tapping, and Isaac's hushed vocal just seems like it's too minimalist in comparison to everything else here. Isaac is basically trying to get out of having to show remorse for a situation that is his fault - he'd rather blame a National Park for his folly than own up to it. (Beats blaming it on the rain, I guess.) The song has a definite air of just not wanting to deal with it, deciding that "God, I need a cold one now." The apathy isn't really working for me, and while a fiddle adds sort of a Dave Matthews Band touch, it just feels like the song drags on for too long, and then it ends, and then it starts again and drags on even longer with a piano outro.

Black Cadillacs
I didn't lie, and I ain't sayin' I told the whole truth
I didn't know that this game we were playin' even had a set of rules...
This is probably the harshest song on the album, and it's a baffling one, talking about weird things like naming children after random towns. I actually think it might be about a marital relationship that is dissolving, which would account for the unbridled frustration inherent in the punchy chorus - "And we were done, done, done, with all the f*ck, f*ck, f*ckin' around!" To the band's credit, they vary that line a bit instead of just repeating the same words each time, so it's actually quite amusing when it turns into, "And we were dumb, dumb dumber than the dirt, dirt, dirt on the ground." The song bounces around a bit and has some interesting key changes, that the way Isaac sings it sounds like he's off-key and trying to find the right notes at times, which is a bit of a turnoff. Some interesting snippets here, and the chorus gets stuck in your head in the worst way, but yeah, not one of my favorites.

One Chance
My friends, my habits, my family
They mean so much to me...
This song is still upbeat but a tad more relaxed, more along the lines of "Ocean Breathes Salty" or "Satin in a Coffin" with its colorful guitar parts and stacked-up vocal parts. I'm not exactly sure what it is that the band is telling us we get "one chance" to do - this is actually frustratingly vague when compared to the strange specificity of some of their other songs. One line comes across loud and clear as it gets yelled over and over again though - "I'm just a box, a box in a cage." That seems to indicate a theme of being trapped, stereotyped, wanting to be something different but not being able to pull it off. Before I can figure it out, the song runs through its last verse and then abruptly drops off. Oh well.

The Good Times Are Killing Me
Got dirt, got air, got water, and I know you can carry on
Shrug off, shortsighted, false excitement and oh, what can I say?
Have one, have twenty more "one mores", and oh, it does not relent....
I thought that this last track (which I think their buddies The Flaming Lips helped to mix or record or play along with or something like that) was a pretty easygoing, fun send-off until I actually read the lyrics. Then I found stuff about "Kick butt buzz-cut d*ckheads" and LSD and other not-so-great things. Basically it's a song about overdoing it with drugs or pleasure or what have you and realizing that all the partying is, quite literally killing you. OK, well, at least they realize it, but man, what a sour note to end on, even if it sounds deceptively upbeat and happy.

Man. I didn't realize until I took a really close look for the sake of this review how frustrated I was with some of these lyrics. This is one of those albums that is great for audiophiles, and even great just for casual listening once you get used to all of those weird sounds, but absolutely horrible for lyrical analysis, outside of maybe one or two songs. I'm probably taking Modest Mouse way too seriously and I should know better than that, so I won't be too harsh on them for it, but if something's a downer for me, I can't pretend it's not. Take the music, which is generally awesome and highly inventive, and average that out with the sometimes amusing, but sometimes off-putting lyrics, and I still think the album comes out above average. Whether not I can recommend it to you is going to be highly dependent on whether you listen more for lyrics or music, so just keep my above complaints and accolades in mind when making a decision.

So, yeah. Maybe these guys really are on crack.

ALBUM WORTH:
Horn Intro $0
The World at Large $2
Float On $2
Ocean Breathes Salty $2
Dig Your Grave $0
Bury Me with It $1.50
Dance Hall -$.50
Bukowski $.50
This Devil's Workday $1
The View $1
Satin in a Coffin $1.50
Interlude (Milo) $.50
Blame It on the Tetons -$.50
Black Cadillacs -$.50
One Chance $1.50
The Good Times Are Killing Me -$.50
TOTAL: $11.50

Band Members:
Isaac Brock: Vocals
Dann Gulicci: Guitars
Eric Judy: Bass
Benjamin Weikel: Drums

Website: http://www.modestmouse.com

Recommended: Yes